Tell Me About Visiting Albuquerque

[iamjoy]

My husband and I are thinking of coming in December to visit a friend, but he may be working a lot - so what would my husband and I do?

How far is ABQ from the ski areas of Taos and Angel Fire and are these good ski slopes for an uncoordinated amatuer and a semi-coordinated amatuer? Do they have air tours to the Grand Canyon in December?

[Spiffarino]

1. Go to Old Town to the square

...and visit the NM Art Museum. Take a tour of the square and surroundings to get your bearings and a feel for the old city. Eat some tamales (Christmas style).

Stay in or near Santa Fe if you want to be closer to the slopes. I've never got to ski there, but I hear it's fantastic. Even if you don't ski, you can eat your way through New Mexico and have a blast.

[kvining]

6. When I go

One of my favorite cheap vacations is to take a flight from Houston to ABQ, rent a car and drive to Taos and back. I don't know if I would do it in December, traveling in the Rockies that time of year can be pretty treacherous. But if you do want to travel, route yourself thru Santa Fe, go downtown and just groove on the place - it is the coolest town in the country. Neat little shops, cool watering holes, and the Governor's Palace, built in th 1500's still survives to this day.

If the weather is good, drive up to Los Alamos. If there is any chance of bad winter wheather at all, I would skip Los Alamos. It is in a very high altitude, remote area, which is why they do secret stuff up there. If you do go, take the road that goes thru White Rock - there is a more direct route but it is one of the scariest roads in the country with blind hairpins and cliffs about 20 feet from your right wheel that drop into thousand ft canyons. I usually spend the night in Los Alamos - they have nice hotels, the town is real upscale due to the national lab. In the morning, again if the weather is good, drive to the Valle Grande, just outside of Los Alamos, one of the greatest, most unknown sights in the country. It is a massive volcanic crater, and quite a sight, and you get to drive right into it.

Stay on the same road to the village of Jemez, and have a beer at the ultra-New Mexican bar in town. The sights along the way are awesome. Catch a mineral bath at the volcanic springs, rumored to cure all ailments, which are indoors and infact cured my wife's eczema she suffered from for years. After all that fun, turn around and go back to Los Alamos, and then route yourself to Taos thru the town of Espanola. All along the way to Espanola, you will see Pueblos selling Indian pottery. Compared to what you would pay for this stuff outside of NM its pretty cheap, but it is still expensive stuff - you can drop an easy grand buying just a few items. There are all types of other Indian high art for sale as well. Once you get to Taos, stay in the Old West hotel downtown, on the Plaza. There are all kinds of neat little clubs on Plaza, so make that a night out to enjoy Spanish music and just have a good time club hopping. Taos is one of the most charming spots in the world, just driving around is a joy. Be sure to see the Rio Grande Gorge, a canyon almost as impressive as the Grande Canyon, just outside of Taos. In Taos you can buy all kinds of native crafts and wearing apparell, a little cheaper than in Santa Fe. There is touristy crap and actual authentic stuff worth having, so be discerning.

I don't ski, but you want to get in touch with Angelfire Ski Resort (http://www.angelfirenm.com ) but be warned the drive from Taos up to Angelfire is treacherous in the winter.

[alittlelark]

2. Wow, OK, Santa Fe ski area is a better bet than Taos

Taos is for the hard-core! Sandia Peak is OK for amateurs (and the tram trip is awesome). Actually the tram is definately worth doing anyway (world's longest). If you like spicy food, you are in nirvana. I go to Alb 3-4 times a year - I grew up there. There is a lot to do in the city, and in the area.

[Hailtothechimp]

3. Get ready for luminarias everywhere.

But on the adobe houses they look pretty good.

A tram ride to the top of Sandia might also be fun.

[NMFreedom]

4. Visiting New Mexico

There are endless things to do in New Mexico. A beautiful place for sure.
Do not miss the Indian Center in Albuquerque, also the Turquoise Museum in Albuquerque, for a good education on Turquoise. Visiting the pueblos is wonderful, such as Acoma, Taos. Be sure to call in advance to make sure they are not closed.

If you drive from Albuquerque to Santa Fe, take the scenic drive, "The Turquoise Trail", which is State Highway 14. Beautiful drive and wonderful art work along the way and a funky town called Madrid.

In Santa Fe endless things to do there as well. Many wonderful museums. But remember all are closed on Monday and that includes Albuquerque, once again, be sure to call and ask for their hours.

The drive to Taos is awesome as well, just beautiful. Also the drive to Los Alamos.

Hope this helps
Free

[slestak]

5. Taos

Taos is about 2.5 hours north of Albuquerque, and Angel Fire is about 1/2 hour from Taos.

I don't ski, so I can't comment about that, but I don't think the ski area in Albuquerque (Sandia Peak) was open at all last year -- not enough snow.

The Grand Canyon is in Arizona. :)

You can take the tram up to the crest, but it's scary if you're afraid of heights. There's also a bunch of casinos around, if that's your thing. If you want to hit a casino, go to Sandia, which is just north of ABQ and is very, very nice (for an Indian casino).

For great New Mexican food, there's a place called Dos Amigos that's on 4th just south of I-40. It's not fancy or touristy -- the place looks like an old Denny's -- but the food is great. Best red chile in town. Other Mexican places are Garduno's adn LIttle Anita's.

The Albuquerque Museum should have it's new expansion open by then (I think) and they have this huge Spanish art exhibit opening at the same time.

Also, the National Hispanic Cultural Center is a great place to visit, and well as the Natural History museum. The zoo is quite nice, but probably closed in December.

It's also fun to cruise down Central Ave., which is the old Route 66 and takes you right through the heart of downtown. There's a bunch of old motels and funky stuff to see.

If the weather's decent, head to Tinkertown, which is in the East Mountains. It's a pretty, um, unusual place. I don't even know how to describe it, but it's certainly interesting.

[Lost4words]

7. best meth labs and tattoo parlors in the country,

oh yea, as a bonus, every 20th auto has a drunk behind the wheel.

Arizona blows, Texas sucks and New Mexico is right in the middle.

Go ahead blast away!

[phusion]

9. hey now

Don't you know New Mexico's never been the same since all the Californians moved here?

:eyes:

[Kralizec]

10. Yea, yea, heard it all. At least it keeps people away.

[Bounce]

11. Plus we have Richardson

He usually travels at well over 100 MPH.

Between the drunks and the Governor... driving here is risky.

[Skelington]

20. You forgot: cock fighting, Indian gambling galore, and the PLAGUE!

[Cybergata]

27. It been ages since you posted this, but...

I just noticed your tag line. I had a bumper sticker for years that had Oat Willy with a torch, just like the comic, saying "ONWARD THROUGH THE FOG." I sold the car with if 5 years ago, and I wish I could have transfered it onto my newest car.

The plague hasn't been too bad in recent year, but the Hanta Virus keeps rearing its ugly head. :hippie:

[Skelington]

28. Hey Cybergata !

I wish I had checked this before now, not to much happening in the NM threads. The plauge isn't really that big a deal, it's just weird that a few people die from "THE PLAGUE", every year.

The railrunner starts public rides next Wed, are you going?

[angry old hippie]

8. fun in ABQ

Depending on what you are interested in you can also take the Tram to the top of Sandia Peak. The tram contains the longest gap between towers of any tram in the world. You go from about 6000 feet to over 10,000. The view is awesome!

[Bounce]

12. El Pinto

You have to go eat at El Pinto!

It is number one!

[Jose Diablo]

13. That tram is something I'd like to see

I was a young boy in ABQ when we went to the top of Sandia. It was around 55 or so. No cable car then. I remember we went up on the other side of the mountain from ABQ.

There was a souvenir shop at the top with overlook and a couple of those pay binoculars for looking out over ABQ. It all looked like sand. I couldn't make out anything where the town was.

I imagine the town is much much larger now.

There were these ditches, I think they were called auroras and when it rained in the mountains, the water from the mountains would flood these auroras. The water would roar going through these ditches and afterwords you could see washed out cars, concrete blocks that had washed out someplace upstream ending-up lining the edge of the ditch like boulders. Pretty interesting for a kid.

And the school, each classroom had a door to the outside, in addition to the corridor inside. I can remember the school being evacuated because a rattlesnake got into the main corridor. Everyone going out the individual doors at each classroom.

And the tarantulas. We used to let them crawl on our hands and arms. They are pretty interesting animals. The drive-in movies at the time had stories about giant tarantulas and ants. None of us thought they were scary because, well we played with the tarantulas. That movie, "The creature from the black lagoon", that was plenty scary though. That and the one with the giant radioactive woman, I can still see her as she is walking by the power lines in those skimpy shorts, of course that image is not scary anymore, rather somewhat exciting, truth be told.

I cannot remember exactly which year it was, but one winter we had a big blizzard. When you looked out the window across the mesa, the aurora was completed filled, leveled with snow. The aurora was about 10 feet deep at that point and it looked just like a flat field. A couple of people froze to death in their stranded cars during that snowstorm.

I could go on and on about the picnics in the mountains, with pine forests with pine straw a foot deep and the mountain streams, ice-cold, and my old man putting his cans of Millers in the stream to keep them cold. Then there was the trips south of the city and green glass (trinitite) you could get at souvenir shops.

It was a different world then. Anyway, enough rambling from an old man.

[AspenRose]

15. "Ditches"=Arroyos

not Auroras....

[Jose Diablo]

21. Thank you for correcting my spelling, you must be a teacher

and feel you need to correct others. Thats a common trait.

I did revisit Albequerque, in early May. I was right, it had grown a lot since I saw it last. After driving around, I saw the elementary school I was trying to remember, it is called Montezuma elementary school. That school was on the eastern most edge of town. Now the town marches right-up to the mountain. It's condo after condo and shopping mall after shopping mall. Must take a lot of water to keep all those lawns green.

You know there are policemen in the gas stations on Central Ave at night. Must be a lot of robberies. Have to pay for the gas before pumping also. I guess there is not much trust left in the world anymore, at least on Central there isn't. It's not much different in any large city, Albequerque is no different, at least as far as the people than anyplace else.

Another one of my old neighborhoods was on Campus, right where it runs into Central. I saw my old home, somebody used gravel to cover the backyard and put in a tall cyclone fence. Then another of the elementary schools I went too, Monte Vista, it had trailer type of school rooms where the playground used to be. Strange but I remember there being more trees on Campus.

Then the place by the river where I lived, just across the river from downtown, it's gone and a shopping mall is there in it's place. I remember the street was lined with Oak trees. But now there is a big improvement; Radio Shacks, and clothing stores to buy stuff from China and all sorts of things people want. And developers give to the people what they want.

To be honest, the ditches before they had the sides and bottom concreted were more interesting, looked cleaner then too. I guess the concrete is to keep them in one place as it wouldn't be good to have an arroyo wandering around and taking out a strip mall or a McDonalds.

I prefered Albequerque much more when there was only about 50,000 people living there and the mesa had nothing but snakes, spiders and cactus. But thats progress, eh? Sometimes I wonder how I could prefer snakes, spiders and cactus over people. I must be anti-social I guess.

Tomasitos in Santa Fe had very good food, and of course the mountains up by Taos, very nice. But Albequerque? Hey I don't see it as any different than anyplace with close to a million people living there. Sorry.

[NMDemDist2]

14. the Grand Canyon? oooppsss!! the G.C. is over in Arizona n/t

[Cybergata]

16. Alburquerque, New Mexico

Go to Santa Fe for skiing, that is if we have snow. We have been in a drought for the past few years. We have prolonged 100 years or so, and we in one now. I learned to ski at Santa Fe, and it has runs for every level of skiing. Taos is a tough mountain, plus Taos is at least a two hour drive from Albuquerque.

Anyone who visits Albuquerque must ride the tram, and eat at the restaurant on the crest. It is one of the most spectacular ride you'll ever take, and this is from someone who road tram in Switzerland. I love when people come to visit, so I have an excuse to ride up the tram. I never tire of the journey up the mountain. I have photos of the ride on my web site at http://cybergata.com/NMPhotos.htm plus photos of Albuquerque and areas near by.

The entire Old Town area is full of museums. The Natural History is a must as well as the Albuquerque Museum. Near by is the Pueblo Indian Cultural Center. Be sure to eat there at least once. I just stop in every now and then just to eat there because the food is so good. There also is the Hispanic Cultural Center in the South Valley. If you like Casinos, go to the Sandia Casino which is just on the northern end of the city. I suggest going to the Nature Center in the North Valley, and taking a walk along the basque.

If you like Museums, take a drive to Santa Fe. The Folk Art Museum, the Fine Art Museum, the Palace of the Governors, & the Georgia O'Keefe Museum are wonderful. You can even get a all museum ticket to visit them all. Well, they use to do that. Santa Fe isn't the wonderful town that I grew up in, since it has been invaded and the Hispanics whose ancestors founded Santa Fe can't afford to live there now.

There are also wonderful day drives. I love a drive through the Jemez area. A lot of the drive is through National Forest area. Another good drive is to good on the turquoise trail. This is highway 14, and it is located on the east side of the Sandia Mountains. You also can access the crest via a road that connects with highway 14, If you continue on highway 14 you can visit one of my favorite places, Madrid and Cerillos. When I was a kid, these villages really were ghosts towns, but not any longer. My parents always seemed to know the one loner that lived in each of these places, but now the villages are thriving.

I also have lots of links about New Mexico on my web site for more information. My New Mexico links are at http://cybergata.com/nm.htm.

[NMDemDist2]

17. what a great site cybergata! and since my house just sold here in PHX

I'm headed over to the Pecos Valley next week to find my slice of New Mexican heaven :bounce:

[Cybergata]

23. New Mexico can sure use another political activist...

and democratic voter. After the last elections, I believe we need 3/1 ratio of Democratic votes to Republican votes just to win by a nose. The Repubs across the country are sneaky, cheating B#st#rds.

[Cybergata]

24. I forgot to thank you! THANK YOU!

[NMDemDist2]

25. you are very welcome! and I'll be in Carlsbad and in touch with the

Dems by mid July :bounce:

[janx]

18. The pics at your first link are not far from my house! n/t

[janx]

19. I have access to a small ditch but didn't use it this spring...

Wonderful links, Cybergata. I moved here last August and am still learning about my enchanting surroundings.

[Cybergata]

22. If you are talking about...

my photo pages, then you must live somewhere in the North Valley, and you are a neighbor, well of sorts. If you are talking about the Hispanic Cultural Center photo in the first NM link page, then we both are Valley people. :hippie: I personally can't imagine living in Albuquerque, and not living in the valley, but then, I've lived here for the past 30 years. Since it is the tricentennial, plus I am a New Mexico History teacher and have recently been studying my genealogy, I've been reading up on Albuquerque's history. I came to realize that where I live isn't far from the places my ancestors lived 300 plus years ago. Now I know why I feel so at home here.

[janx]

26. Yes, I live in the North Valley

and therefore am your neighbor. The intersection of 12th and Candelaria is not far away.

A bunch of you :hippie: must have infiltrated the area at the same time. :rofl: PM me for more details re what I know about that...:rofl:

I'm not far from the Pueblo Cultural Center, in a neighborhood that is (if I may say so) coming up in the world! But I've been to the Hispanic Cultural Center--it's VERY impressive.
The Fruit Stand on 12th St. is a great place, and I love the hummingbirds. There are two large mulberry trees in back that the hummingbirds like to nest in. There are three feeders here. I've given up on the seed feeders for the summer, because the Cassin's finches are obnoxiously voracious, and they mess around with the hummingbird feeders as well.

The most amazing part of NM history that I've learned so far is how the Pueblo Indians defeated the Spanish at Santa Fe.

Please feel free to send me PM. I would love to meet you for lunch, coffee, etc. I have been teaching English (writing in particular) since I arrived here.